Entry to the new Sackler Courtyard will be through the arches of the 19th-century screen designed by Sir Aston Webb, an integral part of the museum’s original building," says the V&A's website. "From the Sackler Courtyard visitors will access the Sainsbury Gallery and wider Museum through Blavatnik Hall, a major new entrance that we expect to welcome around half of the V&A’s 3.4 million annual visitors. It will also be possible to see the previously hidden facades of Aston Webb’s original buildings, and detailed sgraffito decoration which will be made publicly accessible for the first time since its completion in 1873."

2. Design Society, Shenzhen

Further afield, the V&A will be collaborating with the China Merchants Shekou Holdings group to launch the Design Society - a new cultural hub in Shenzhen's Sea World Culture and Arts Centre.

The complex will consist of a the Guanfu Museum, presenting a collection of Chinese applied arts, a theatre, a multi-purpose hall, as well as a learning and public programme. The rest of the Seaworld Culture and Arts center will include shops and commercial activities.

A rendering of the Design Society

3. Charterhouse Museum, London

The historic Charterhouse complex - at various times a burial ground, monastery, mansion, school and almshouse - will open to the public for the first time this month.

From January 27 guests will be able to visit its gardens in Charterhouse Square and a new museum tracing the history of the site. Entrance to the museum is free. A 55-minute guided tour costs £10 per person.

4. Tate St Ives gets a makeover, Cornwall

Elsewhere in Britain, the Tate St Ives has been undergoing a major refurbishment which will expand its space to accommodate larger scale artworks and let visitors “engage more deeply with art”. The new museum opens on March 31.

5. YSL Museum, Paris and Marrakesh

The Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation will be opening two museums in 2017 (one in Paris and the other in Marrakesh) celebrating the life and 40-year career of French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. Both will present a range of items from its collection, including some of the designer’s most notable creations.

The Paris museum will occupy his former couture house at 5 Avenue Marceau, while the Marrakesh outpost will sit inside a new building on Rue Yves Saint Laurent, near the Majorelle Garden (which the designer acquired in 1980 to prevent it being turned into a hotel).

A rendering of the YSL Museum in Marrakesh

6. Abu Dhabi Louvre, UAE

The much anticipated - and delayed - Abu Dhabi branch of the Louvre is finally expected to open its doors this year. The collaboration with the French institution will see it create a “new centre of cultural gravity”, showcasing significant works from the fields of archaeology, fine and decorative arts, spanning various periods of history and parts of the world.

8. Marciano Museum, Los Angeles

The founders of the Guess fashion brand, brothers Maurice and Paul Marciano, are giving LA's Scottish Rite Masonic Temple, an 18th-century social club for Freemasons, deserted in 1994, a new lease of life as an art museum. The sprawling 110,000 square-foot Marciano Museum will showcase the contemporary collection of the Maurice and Paul Marciano Art Foundation.

9. Museum MACAN, Indonesia

The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (MACAN) will be the country’s first major museum dedicated to modern art. Opening its doors in the capital city of Jakarta later this year, it will house works by both local and international artists.

10. Museum Barberini, Germany

Germany’s newest art museum, in Potsdam, will feature both Old Masters and contemporary painters, but with a focus on impressionism. Hosting three major exhibitions a year, the museum will display works from the founder’s private collection as well as items on loan from museums around the world, such as the Musée Rodin in Paris which will support the museum’s opening exhibition, Impressionism: The Art of Landscape.

11. ICA Miami, Florida

Miami’s Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) will be moved to a new permanent home this year in the city’s Design District. A shiny new building will furnish visitors more than 20,000 square feet of exhibition space as well as a public sculpture garden.

12. Museum of the Bible, Washington DC

The 430,000 square-foot museum promises to offer an “unparallelled” exploration of the Bible through various high-tech immersive experiences. Opening in November, it will be located a stone's throw from the National Mall and the Capitol Building.

13. Lanzarote's underwater museum

Museo Atlántico, an underwater collection of more than 300 sculptural works by British artist Jason deCaires Taylor, opened to the public earlier this month. The installations can be found 14 metres beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean in Bahía de Las Coloradas (Coloradas Bay), off the south coast of Lanzarote. The site spans an area of 2,500 square metres, and can be explored by scuba divers or from glass-bottomed boats.

The Museo Atlantico

14. King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture, Saudia Arabia

Nearly a decade in the making, this 100,000 square-metre complex in Dhahran, eastern Saudi Arabia, will feature several cultural facilities including a 930-seat auditorium for opera and musical performances. The centre’s exhibition hall will be designed to accommodate large shows, banquets and conferences.

Visitors will also have access to a library housing a collection of nearly 200,000 books, while its museum and archives will trace the cultural history of the country.

15. Beit Beirut, Lebanon

This cultural centre will be the country’s first museum dedicated to its 15-year civil war, which ended in 1990. Located in the soon-to-be-restored Yellow House, an historic building dating back to 1924 that served as a control post and a base for snipers during the conflict. Working in partnership with the Paris city council and the French Embassy, the museum, slated to open in autumn, hopes to serves as a cultural and artistic space as well as a research facility.

16. Museum of the Second World War, Poland

Gdańsk, the first port of call for Hitler's war machine, will be the location for a new museum spanning a vast 23,000 square metres. It will focus on the stories of everyday civilians and soldiers, with political and military affairs forming the background narrative.

17. MOCAPE, China

Set in the southern coastal city of Shenzhen, in China's Guangdong province, the Museum of Contemporary Art & Planning Exhibition (MOCAPE) is designed to be like a “three-dimensional Chinese garden”, according to Wolf D. Prix, CEO of the architectural group behind it. A transparent facade and interior lighting system will allow visitors to enjoy unhindered views of the surrounding cityscape.

18. Astana World Expo, Kazakhstan

Hot on the heels of Milan comes Kazkhstan. The next World Expo takes place in Astana between June 10 and September 10 and is themed around “Future Energy”. Visitors can expect the usual array of pavilions, installations, workshops, demonstrations and forums.

19. The reopened Ferens Art Gallery, Hull

Hull’s top art gallery reopened its doors this month following a £5 million refurbishment, with the city gearing up for a host of programmes and events as the UK’s Capital of Culture for 2017. Highlights include a 14th-century Pietro Lorenzetti painting of Jesus Christ, restored by the National Gallery, and borrowed works by Rembrandt, van Dyck and Holbein from the Royal Collection. The gallery will also be hosting this year's Turner Prize.

21. Pandora: The World of Avatar, Florida

Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park will be introducing a new nature park offering “magical, otherworldly” experiences, including an enchanting night-time journey down a sacred river, through a rainforest filled with glowing plants.

22. DisneySea, Tokyo

The Tokyo Disney Resort will be launching a new Finding Nemo/Dory-themed immersive underwater experience (on land), where visitors board a fish-shaped submarine to go for a virtual ride through the ocean.

23. Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg

Seven years late and 10 times over budget (how un-Teutonic), the Elbphilharmonie concert hall finally opened its doors this month. The building is certainly eye-catching and the acoustics utterly sublime (for £670m, they should be). For more on the attraction, read our report.

24. New at CBeebies Land, England

Part of Staffordshire's Alton Towers park, CBeebies Land will be launching two new attractions this year, including the Go Jetters Vroomster Zoom ride, allowing kids to “fly around the world”, and the Furchester Hotel Live Show, featuring various characters including Sesame Street’s Elmo and the Cookie Monster.

25. Ninjago World, Florida and UK

Legoland’s new ninja-themed world opened at its Florida park this month, will kids invoted to “think, move and train like the ninja” through a series of activities. A version is coming to Legoland Windsor in May.